I suspect that the proverbial visitor from Mars might besomewhat confused reading last week’s eulogies to IanPaisley’s political career.

The political establishments in Dublin, London and Belfastfell over themselves not to spoil the farewell party withtheir effusive tributes. It’s almost as though somedelicate charade has to be kept up until, finally, thedoor slams in May on the retirement home in Carrickfergusand the key is firmly turned. Until then, the ancient anddangerous elephant is still grinning at us from the cornerof the room. Some have been seeking refuge in speculatingon how history might judge him, which is something I thinkwe are required to do now, and not at some point in thefuture.

The truth of it is that, over the past 40 years, Ian KylePaisley was - more than any other single individual - aprimary cause and hugely responsible for the bloody andmurderous carnage that dominated life in Ireland.

The fact that, in the end, he led what was left ofunionism into a new and historic power-sharing deal withnationalism was proof, not of his reformation, but of hissheer political opportunism. Only one so utterly cynicalcould continue to insist that what he had done was somehowprofoundly different to what David Trimble or BrianFaulkner had done before him.

The 2007 St Andrew’s deal is essentially the 1973Sunningdale Agreement with a few different bells on it,but we have all had to keep our mouths shut for monthsnow. A wrong word in the wrong place, and the Big Manmight bolt again across the land of the dreary spires,scattering courtiers and civil servants before him. Thetruth is that the king (or First Minister) has had noclothes for a long time now, but it suited us all to saynothing.

There is a version of our - and his - history which mustnot be forgotten, however sentimental the moment might be.In the beginning, had he not destroyed Terence O’Neill andthose small progressive forces in unionism, the campaignfor full and equal civil rights within the United Kingdommight not have turned into a bloody war for a unitedIreland. Had he not continuously and outrageously stokedthe fires of sectarianism, there is a real chance that theevents of August 1969 in West Belfast - which largelycreated the Provisional IRA - might never have happened.

Had he not undermined unionism from the outside down allthe years, the Sunningdale Agreement could conceivablyhave begun a healing process 34 years ago. Above all, hepublicly identified himself with a degree of nakedsectarianism that poisoned society in the North and went along way towards creating the physiological context forthe loyalist murder gangs. He never killed or shot anyone,he may never have behaved illegally, but without theclimate he created in the 1960s and 1970s, could theShankill Butchers have felt justified?

In the end, age and ambition got him, shrinking him downto become one half of the unlikeliest political couplethat the world has ever seen. Down the years, when the IRAseemed to be running out of options, there was alwaysPaisley to rescue them with his bully-boy politicalantics. And ironically, at the end of 30 years of war andwith republicans desperate to deliver some sort of result,there was Paisley to rescue them yet again by propping upa localised and devolved regional assembly.

Even now, one cannot see him in the mind’s eye withoutspeculating on what might have been, and what might not.Perhaps, down the years, he has succeeded even in blindinghimself to the enormous damage he did to the province thathe claims to have loved so much. And as he forever extolsthe pain and loss of those who died around him, does heever for a moment consider who made the stones for thestone-throwers?

Nor might his ghost be vanquished yet. I suspect thatthose who look forward to a flawless succession and power-sharing business as usual might be in for a few surprises.I believe that the DUP post Paisley will be an entirelydifferent political entity with an entirely differentpolitical dynamic - and, sooner or later, that may affectdevolution.

Jim Allister and his nascent Traditional Unionist Voicehave only Paisley’s example to begin the now-familiarprocess of undermining the new unionist establishmentcreated by the DUP.

They will, of course, copy the master by raising fears andplaying on prejudices and seeking to undermine anyunionist who attempts to treat any nationalist as anequal. They are opposed to mandatory coalition, which ismerely another way of saying that they are opposed topowersharing. And they are spouting some guff aboutgetting rid of the IRA’s Army Council.

Will some class of new Paisley come among us? Allister islimited enough material to begin with, but he knows allthe old sell-out tunes. He’s dull and stolid, butapparently he’s already mischief-making on the DUPbackbenches. Papa Doc and Baby Doc made enemies both interms of putting Sinn Fein in government and then by notputting certain people in ministerial posts - and nowthese people are circling. For example, the recent insideinformation fed to the press about the methods employed bythe Paisley and Robinson families seemingly to employrelatives on HMG’s payroll came from within the DUPitself.

Now, as the old man limps off into the sunset, he leavesbehind, not a political party with ideological positionsand with tried and tested political structures, but apolitical cabal forced together by various events - andone that, I suspect, only he could ever hold together.

March 10, 2008

GFA 10th Anniversary: Peace Without Justice

Northern Ireland: Peace Without Justice

It has been 10 years since the Belfast Agreement ended centuries ofarmed Nationalist resistance to English rule in Ireland. The Britishtook their time implementing the demilitarization measures and theelected Assembly and, in the mean time, loyalist militants would killover thirty Catholics. Despite the good intentions of Prime MinisterBlair, the Army and MI-5 have blocked all progress on the Agreement’scall for independent inquires into security force collusion withloyalist death squads and the corruption of law in the North.America weighed in once before to bring about the peace. Will it dothe same now to see that justice is done?

The accord was immediately dubbed the “Good Friday Agreement,” withits adoption in 1998. Civil rights activist and former Member ofParliament Bernadette Devlin, who survived one assassination attemptat the hands of the British Army, panned both the document and thelabel by stating “I think they should have waited until HolySaturday.” In several respects she was right. The British wereanxious to reduce the violence to manageable levels. The periodleading up to the agreement from 1994 to 1996 included a surge ofloyalist slaughter including the butchering of 16 year old JamesMorgan and the murder of dozens of others including Ben Hughes andJohn Slane, two fathers who left 11 children behind. By the time thesecond IRA cease-fire ended in 1996 with the Canary Wharf bombing,the British people were weary of the failed Irish policies of theThatcher-Major era.

The peace pact was the result of a unique collaboration between,President Clinton, who took his own counsel on N. I., and PrimeMinister Blair, the first Labor leader in living memory who didn’tneed loyalist votes to govern. Add to their patience and wisdom theskill of the moderator, former Senator George Mitchell and a new erawas ushered into Irish history. Well almost. The ink was barely drywhen the loyalist and British backsliding began on both the letterand spirit of the documents. The elected Assembly —without policingand justice powers---has functioned only since 2005 and troopwithdrawals were regularly delayed. Although violence has subsided,thirty-one Catholics have been killed since 1998 including GeraldLalor, Danny McColgan, Ciaran Cummings and most recently MichaelMcIlveen aged 15. To appease militant loyalists two supplementalunderstandings were adopted at Weston Park and St Andrew’s. However,the ‘truth and justice’ sections, as they have come to be called,have languished with negligible progress.

Just what are these justice issues?

• Unsolved killings—Sinn Fein and others including the Irishgovernment were apparently under the delusion that Britain would makesome effort to explain the failure to arrest, prosecute or convict inover 1000 unsolved murders in the North. The victims were mostlyCatholic. The Director of Public Prosecution also failed to indicteven one person from the investigation of British Constable Stevenswho documented murders involving collusion with security forces.

• Bloody Sunday, Dublin/Monaghan & Omagh—Thirty-six years after thatfateful day in Derry Britain will not indicate when its report intothe Bloody Sunday massacre will be released.

The single largest atrocity of the conflict, the Dublin/Monaghanbombings were carried out by a loyalist death squad and the BritishArmy. An investigation into that act of war, which for Ireland was onthe scale of a “9/11” attack, has been stonewalled by the BritishMinistry of Defense.

Likewise the Omagh bombing will not be independently looked at because too many secrets of the security forces would be revealed.

• Pat Finucane & Rosemary Nelson---These two lawyers were assassinatedfor their work challenging the corrupt justice apparatus Britainestablished to prop up garrison rule. Security force involvement inthe assassination is certain. Britain is not cooperating withinvestigators fearing disclosures will destroy the spin and expose thedeceit of their ‘upholding the rule of law.’

Can American leadership again be expected to bring some urgency togetting answers to the justice issues? The chemistry of Clinton andBlair is not likely to be repeated unless Senator Clinton were tobecome President. The Department of State remains blinded by a WorldWar II ‘special relationship’ psyche. Their diplomacy with the U. Kis based on deals not justice. Britain’s delay and cover up on thesematters is understandable. Slowly a picture has emerged in NorthernIreland of a violent 40 year criminal conspiracy by the governmentsagainst the Catholic Nationalists. If America and Americans don’tdemand Britain live up to the justice issues of the Belfast Agreement,there will be no accountability, no justice for the victims of their lawlessness and a history of the era built on lies.

Michael J. Cummings, MemberNational Boards of the Irish American Unity Conferenceand the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and former NationalExecutive member of the Irish Northern Aid Committee12 Marion AveAlbany, New York 12203-1814518-482-0349, 518-447-4802saoirse64@hotmail.com

March 09, 2008

Paisley: I Smashed Sinn Fein

(Poster’s Note: What kind of LOYALIST/UNIONIST is Paisley? He agreedto participate in ALL-IRELAND governmental bodies; he agreed to theGood Friday Agreement which has the mechanism to UNITED the 32counties into ONE country. His references to not shaking hands aresimilar to Pontius Pilot who thought he could cleanse his soul bywashing his hands. Ian, you can’t make deals with “Sinn Fein/IRA” and claim to be an innocent just because you don’t shake hands. These comments show how UGLY his TWO faces are!! Jay)

PAISLEY -- I SMASHED SINN FEIN 03/09/08 11:37 EST

Northern Ireland's outgoing First Minister Ian Paisley todayprovocatively asserted that Sinn Féin were no longer "truerepublicans" because they had 'accepted' Britain's right togovern in Northern Ireland.

Mr Paisley (81) who will retire as First Minister in May,said he had achieved his aim and "smashed" Sinn Féin becausethey were now involved in the political process.

"I did smash them, because I took away their main plank.Their main plank was that the would not recognise theBritish Government. Now they are in part of the BritishGovernment."

He added: "They can't be true republicans when they nowaccept the right of Britain to govern this country and totake part in that government."

He also dismissed suggestions he had been forced out by aninternal Democratic Unionist Party coup. He said the reasonhe stepped down was because it was time for a "newgeneration" to shape the country's future.

"There's a new thinking in Ulster today, not only that thereis a new generation. There are people now coming out oftheir teens, they didn't know the troubles. They were neverthere - that's the sort of country they want to live in.They should be given the opportunity to help to mould thatcountry and how they feel it should be run."

There has been speculation that Mr Paisley was forced toquit after coming under pressure from his party over theactivities of his son, Ian Paisley Jnr.

But Mr Paisley said: "There's always people in every partywho, for reasons best known to themselves, will takedifferent attitudes. But that's politics and I think peopleknow that I wouldn't budge very easily if I didn't want to."

On his relationship with Mr McGuiness, Mr Paisley saiddespite their good working relationship the pair had nevershaken hands as to do so would be a "farce".

Mr Paisley, who will remain as the MP and Assembly memberfor North Antrim, described himself as a "sinner saved bythe grace of God".

He continued: "I have my faults, which are many, which Ilament. I want to do the best for my country and I want tosay that I believed that when I helped to get a settlementof the Northern Ireland situation - and I was only a helper,I don't deserve all the praise."__________________________________________________________

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